Cassopolis to survey voters

-Former Dowagiac school chief will collect feedback.

-Former Dowagiac school chief will collect feedback.

February 28, 2008|MELISSA JACKSON Tribune Staff Writer

CASSOPOLIS -- Cassopolis school officials are turning to a former area school superintendent as they seek out community feedback on the district's November bond proposal defeat. The school board agreed this week to hire former Dowagiac Union Schools superintendent Larry Crandall to conduct a survey of people who voted in the second failed bond election. It's a process that Crandall is familiar with; in 2000 he personally conducted a similar survey of Dowagiac voters after they turned down three bond attempts to build a new high school. When survey results showed that voters would be more willing to support a middle school than a high school, Dowagiac school officials complied and ended up with a victory at the polls in 2001. Crandall's fee for the survey is $6,500. Cassopolis Public Schools Superintendent Gregory Weatherspoon said he hopes to have the survey finished by May so the board will "have the summer to unpack it." Board members expressed concern about apathy among district voters. "Sports they love," board member Bill Loux said. "Education takes the back burner in this community and that really upsets me." "Hopefully," added board member Sue Horstmann, who noted how parents were missing at the polls, "this would draw the community into this." Cassopolis' two elementary buildings face a number of infrastructure problems, including electrical, heating and plumbing problems, and school officials want to address safety issues, as well. The solution put before voters was building a new K-8 building on the same campus as the high school, which would be renovated, and closing the two elementary buildings and the administration building. The plan required passing a roughly 4.37-mill levy that voters turned down by a 2-to-1 margin twice last year. Staff writer Melissa Jackson: mjackson@sbtinfo.com (269) 687-7003